VLSI’s CHIP MAKING INDUSTRY HALL OF FAME

These are the executives that have made the industry what it is today.  Of course, they will tell you they are parts of bigger teams who really made it possible.  It’s true, but these people took the point, making them the most visible for either adulation or the well placed sniper’s bullet.  In doing so, they led the industry and their companies forward, to which we can all be thankful.

Alex d'Arbelof (1993) can probably lay claim to being the leader of a semiconductor equipment company longer than anyone in history.  He has earned this distinction with honor.  Teradyne has been consistently well-managed and profitable under his tenure.  He has kept Teradyne a consistent leader in ATE, throughout more than twenty years of business and product cycles.  Moreover, he brought a strong sense of ethics to the equipment industry that all companies would do well to emulate.  > Back to Top

Arthur del Prado (1993) can lay claim to being the first to recognize the benefits of foreign investments and decentralized management.  This innovation made him the first European business leader to build a significant-sized equipment company from a European base.  > Back to Top

Arthur Zafiropoulo (1994) was the American executive to turn around a lithography company. His strength is in his ability to properly balance technology with marketing and sales. He knows how to identify and evoke the strength of a company.  > Back to Top

Barry Rapozo (2006) won his Bob Graham Award for excellence in sales in marketing. He won it for bringing professional sales methods to our industry. He is the master of the relationship sale. His method is to establish a life-long relationship with the customer, which he carefully glues together with trust: Do what you say; say what you do; and when you can’t go to the customer hat in hand with honest and integrity to figure out how you can fix it together.  But the thing that is most endearing to me about Barry is his ability to pass it on. I’ve learned so much from this man. Look at some of his other students for proof: Harvey Frye and Gary Dickerson. Plus, he taught us all to pass it on. Few people will have had such lasting effect on this industry as Barry will have had — that is if it ever dies off.  > Back to Top

Bob Huston (2006) was both a modern Nick DeWolf and a west coast version. Few people outside the test industry knew him or even knew of him. But inside the test industry, he was legendary. His funeral was like a test industry get-together. Yet, it also showed how isolated the back-end is from the front. No leaders from the front end were there and not even someone from SEMI. Yet without Bob’s contributions, our industry would be much smaller than it is today. If you can’t test the chip, you can’t sell it, because there is no way to know its value.

The legend of Bob Huston came from his ability to get inside the machine, to think like the machine, to be one with the soul of the machine. He invented Shmoo plotting, which was a huge testing advance for memories. But his legend really comes from his ability to solve customer application problems: ones that without a solution, the product would have never made it to market. He would guide the tester through the chip, searching, and finding faults no one else could. The biggest block buster chip of the last three decades has to be Intel’s 386 microprocessor. Without it, Microsoft’s Windows and the GUI revolution that came with it might have never happened. This is because Intel, with the help of its best vendors, could not figure out how to reliably test it. Hundreds of engineers had been thrown at the project to no avail. Dave House, the executive running Intel’s side of the project was pulling his hair out. Trillium was an untested start-up. Yet, Bob figured out how to test it, to which Dave said he would be eternally grateful. Intel was grateful enough to shower Trillium with all its 386 tester business. But the story does not end there. Similar to the story of Tom Clancy being investigated, Bob was investigated by Intel’s CIA equivalent. Bob had said, “I just read your book:” the public 386 spec book. They never found anything else, the proof of Bob’s ability to guide a tester through a chip.

Bob was a genius, and like most geniuses, he was somewhat temperamental. He once walked out of a customer, refusing to find the problem, and got on a plane to fly home. That customer had made the mistake of making some disparaging remarks about the tester. Jim Healy (who Bob Huston mentored and a Bob Graham Award recipient) said of this episode, “Insult Bob, but DO NOT insult his tester.” I was once on a plane back to Boston, with a red, hot, and very angry LTX executive. The executive had flown from Boston for a scheduled product review meeting with Bob on the Trillium tester. Bob wasn’t there. He had gone hang gliding. What the executive didn’t know, and I later found out, was that Bob — in the unique way that he worked — had been on the tester for 72 hours straight! He needed a mental break to figure out the problem. A product review meeting would have blocked that. So he had intentionally stood up the LTX executive. Bob was right. The tester was more important than any review meeting could ever be. The Trillium tester would become a block-buster landmark, while the executive would fade into the dust bin of this industry’s history.

All sorts of things like this happened countless times with Bob. He was brilliant and a character at the same time. Without him, our industry would be much smaller. Bob Huston is proof of the immense power of the individual to change the course of history in the hi-tech industry. Bob, you will be sorely missed. > Back to Top

C. Scott Kulicke (1994) was the first to prove that a Japanese competitor could indeed be beaten with superior products. He is a master of using product innovation as a means to gain a competitive advantage.  > Back to Top

Dan Maydan (1996) is the only technologist to have implemented multiple visions into successful semiconductor equipment types.  He often sees beyond any marketing survey or customer to find products they absolutely need, sometimes selling the unsellable while doing it.  He has created more wealth and jobs than anyone in the history of this industry, while pursuing his vision.  Quiet, unassuming and relentless, there is only one word that describes this man: genius.  > Back to Top

Egon Putzi (2006) has beaten all the odds to make SEZ a consistently profitable wet processing company.  First of all, SEZ is in the middle of technology nowhere: Austria.  Second, he has uniquely differentiated something that many thought were undifferentiable: wet processing – and that was in a time when most equipment companies were giving up on differentiation.  > Back to Top

Gary Dickerson (2006) is a master of hi-tech marketing. He competes on raw intellect, out-thinking the competition at every step. A modern day MacArthur, he brilliantly finds ways to leap over the competition’s strongholds, turning strengths into weaknesses. He makes fighting the Japanese look easy. His real break came in the late eighties, when customers clamored to skip i-line and jump to DUV. Martin and the team at ASML didn’t take the bait. They risked all betting that the customers were wrong and the Japanese couldn’t make DUV work. They developed i-line instead. The bet paid off and they took the lead while everyone else back tracked. He insisted customers put some skin in the game with 157nm and pay for development tools. Doing the same with immersion took them from behind to the lead as well
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James Bagley (1994) built an infrastructure that created the industry's first billion-dollar company: Applied Materials. His concept of infrastructure resulted in planned architectural growth of an organization.  Competent individuals are hired in advance of need, ensuring that a company never outgrows its ability.  This led directly to Applied’s systematic growth in the eighties.  After receiving this award, he went on to turn around Lam Research.  > Back to Top

James Morgan (1993) is in a class by himself.  He would likely rank as the best business executive of the eighties, if one could compare his accomplishments to executives in other industries.  He came to Applied Materials as a turnaround artist, taking them from near failure to being one of the most successful companies in the history of the equipment industry.  He developed a method of financing that enabled equipment companies to grow profitably while introducing new products.  Those financing methods allowed Applied to sustain the healthy rate of product introduction that made it a giant in today's marketplace.  Mr. Morgan has also developed innovative ways to attract the best people in the industry, gotten them to work together (in spite of clashing egos), and provided the incentives that led to the introduction of innovative products.  Moreover, he literally wrote the book on how to compete with Japan.  Applied Materials has largely been successful because of its thrust into Japan.  It learned to compete in this market better than many Japanese companies can, and it pushed many of them aside to gain its dominance.  > Back to Top

Jean LeMoin (1994) pioneered the concept that a PR agency is a mechanism for managing a company's image across a broad front. She focuses on creating an image that is cohesive with the media, customers, and the financial community. Consequently, the presentation of the company is deep and rings true.  > Back to Top

Jon Tompkins (1996) deftly managed the acquisition of Prometrix, in the middle of a boom, without losing key people.  Acquisitions are rarely beneficial and usually risky.  Mr. Tompkins beat the odds, displaying true management skill, and turning Tencor into a power player in the process.  > Back to Top

Karl Nicklaus (1994) created one of the most longest-lived equipment companies in history. He founded ESEC in 1968 and has brought it through many turns of the market. He was the first to implement software as a way to reduce mechanical components, thereby increasing equipment reliability and lowering cost of ownership.  > Back to Top

Ken Levy (1995) applied his vision of using pattern recognition as a means to dramatically improve yield, thereby ensuring the continued success of Moore’s Law.  He built a strong company around this vision, with the principles of having the best products available throughout the world.  He has proven to be a tough, hands-on manager who can keep his company consistently on track.  > Back to Top

Ken Schroeder (1996) focused KLA’s product line on yield management, not only ensuring KLA’s fortunes, but also making them instrumental in keeping the semiconductor industry on the learning curve.  Mr. Schroder can also be credited with turning KLA into a profitable company by deftly cutting the deadwood that plagued it in the late eighties.
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Martin van den Brink (2006) is a master of hi-tech marketing. He competes on raw intellect, out-thinking the competition at every step. A modern day MacArthur, he brilliantly finds ways to leap over the competition’s strongholds, turning strengths into weaknesses. He makes fighting the Japanese look easy. His real break came in the late eighties, when customers clamored to skip i-line and jump to DUV. Martin and the team at ASML didn’t take the bait. They risked all betting that the customers were wrong and the Japanese couldn’t make DUV work. They developed i-line instead. The bet paid off and they took the lead while everyone else back tracked. He insisted customers put some skin in the game with 157nm and pay for development tools. Doing the same with immersion took them from behind to the lead as well.  > Back to Top

Mark Bohr (2006) has driven the industry, by scaling down circuits as the hard pace dictated by Moore’s Law. Most of the industry’s leaders have given up, calling for a slowing of the pace. But by caning Intel into a leadership position in the nineties, he forced the rest of the industry to follow. He did so because his efforts did not end up as pretty papers in technical conferences. They wound up as real . . . manufacturable . . . product. That forced others to respond competitively.  > Back to Top

Papken Der Torossian (1994) saved the step-and-scan lithography technology for America. He is best known for finding win-win solutions for issues of state as well as business. He is the first statesman of the equipment industry.  > Back to Top

Ray Thompson (2006) showed the world that you don’t have to be in the Valley to be competitive. You can be anywhere, as long as you understand the strengths and weaknesses of your local environment and adapt to them. Flying into the wind with private aircraft, he gained massive lift from being in Montana. Journalistas may hate it, but no one can deny that it works. Another thing was having a stable workforce that wasn’t polishing resumes, while thinking about the next job and the pay increase it would bring. Relying on this allowed Ray to build an extremely responsive company. Almost too extreme in fact.  > Back to Top

Patrick Lam (2006) was the first to build an equipment company in Asia, outside of Japan.  He showed how this region could lead, with ASM Pacific taking the top spot in the assembly equipment market.  His strategy was unique to chip making equipment: be as vertically integrated as possible.  Rely on local low-cost manufacturing to gain a cost advantage.  Avoid the leading edge and sell good-enough and very good prices.  Since then, ASM Pacific has gone on to develop an impressive array of technical capability.  > Back to Top

Robert Boehlke (2005) transformed KLA from a technology leader that analysts described as “flakey” to a profitable “well-oiled machine.”  Before Mr. Boehlke took charge as CFO, KLA was always missing quarters and never earned consistently.  Few CFOs ever have a transformative effect, which is what makes Bob so special.  What makes him stand above the crowd is his unique understanding of human nature; his complete mastery of strategy and tactics; and his ability to always see the plainly obvious things that everyone else overlooks.  > Back to Top

Robert Graham (1993) His marketing prowess was legendary.  He consistently brought more successful systems to market, while suffering fewer introduction failures than anyone in the history of the equipment market.  His secrets are simple: Know your customer's business better than they do, sell only what the customer needs and benefits from, do not cater to their wants, and know when not to listen to them.  His advantage was that he did these better than anyone.  As a result, he became one of those rare individuals who gets deep respect from even his fiercest competitors.  He was also the first to recognize the potential of Japan as a future market.  This enabled Applied Materials to become one of the most successful American companies in Japan as measured by share of sales.  > Back to Top

Robert Holzel (1993) brought the concepts of systems integrator manufacturing strategies to the industry, and showed that vertically integrated manufacturing was not needed.  He was the first to use the subcontracting of subsystems as a way to significantly reduce overhead, an approach that single-handedly put Extrion back in the black after 1985's recession.  Today, his subcontracting strategies are widely copied and are in use at virtually all profitable equipment companies.  > Back to Top

Roger Emerick (1993) is unique in his ability to build a company that is a joy for its customers and a joy for its employees. The value of this strategy is that it has made Lam Research a consistent leader.  Its employees are quick to respond to customer problems without arrogance, and its customers are more forgiving when it stumbles.  On occasions when Lam does stumble, as all companies do, it never falls far.  > Back to Top

Shoichiro Yoshida (1993) took Nikon from being an OEM supplier to being one the world’s most respected semiconductor equipment companies.  He successfully leveraged Nikon's reputation for quality and reliability in the camera business into a similar reputation for its steppers.  He ushered in a new era in which quality and reliability would become primary decision factors in equipment selection.  > Back to Top

Sunlin Chou (2006) took research and turned it into a manufacturing center that systematically turns ideas into product.  In doing so, he marched Intel ahead at a pace that would take them from being behind process-wise to being a full generation ahead.  > Back to Top

Terry Higashi (2005) navigated TEL through the toughest times the Equipment Industry has ever seen, all the while building them into a technology leader.  TEL was once known as the best representative in Japan and the best builder of American designed equipment.  Mr. Higashi steered TEL through rough waters to be a global leader.  Mr. Higashi is a man of great integrity and one of the few that customers truly respect.  > Back to Top

Tokuo Kubo (1993) was the first to recognize the value of alliances and to capitalize on this.  This enabled him to successfully build the world’s largest equipment company without a strong technology base.  Mr. Kubo made TEL one of the best marketing companies in the industry.  > Back to Top

Walt Mathews (1995), more than any other individual, was responsible for giving the semiconductor equipment industry its own presence separate from the semiconductor industry.  Thanks to Mr. Mathews, people now know it is semiconductor equipment that makes the chips inside their computers, and that semiconductor equipment is at the beginning of the technology food chain.  > Back to Top